Thinking beyond turkey for Thanksgiving dinner

Wednesday

Nov 26, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2008 at 6:01 AM

Nick Visione's loved ones expect the unexpected on Thanksgiving. While most people's traditions include the likes of turkey or ham with all the trimmings, Visione is among many central Illinoisans who add a unique twist to holiday cooking. "The kids call it land, sea and air," Visione said. "We try to have something that walks, something that swims and something that flies."

Ryan Ori

Nick Visione's loved ones expect the unexpected on Thanksgiving.

While most people's traditions include the likes of turkey or ham with all the trimmings, Visione is among many central Illinoisans who add a unique twist to holiday cooking.

"The kids call it land, sea and air," Visione said. "We try to have something that walks, something that swims and something that flies."

Here's a look at some unusual culinary celebrations.

Wild things

Every Thanksgiving at Visione's house in West Peoria, wild game is prepared.

Visione and his sons Bruno, 16, and Sonny, 13, are joined by Visione's fiancee Kathy Cusack and her son Brian, 25.

When his sons became bored with the standard turkey, he added bison. Then Visione got more creative: venison, elk, ostrich, wild boar, pheasant, duck, goose, alligator and fish such as crappie and bluegills.

"I haven't tried bugs on them yet," Visione said. "They've never really shown that much of an interest in it. But pretty much anything else, they'll give it a try."

Visione's hobby is to watch food shows and troll butcher shops in search of new and unusual meats, including a far-and-wide search this fall for rattlesnake and kangaroo meat. He also gets wild game, and recipes, from friends who hunt.

"If you poke around at smaller meat markets and get to know the butchers there, you can ask if they're able to get this or that kind of meat," Visione said. "I pretty much tour the meat markets - Pottstown, Raber's, Alwan's, Haddad's. . . . If they can't get something, they can tell you where. And thank God for the Internet. You can order things on there and it'll come packed in dry ice."

Visione grew up around grandparents from Poland, Yugoslavia and Italy. The late Frank and Vivian Volk ran Volk's Tap in LaSalle for 47 years. They often prepared various ethnic dishes on request.

Although his fiancee sticks with turkey, Visione said the rest of the gathering enjoys surprises. One exception was the year the boys asked what they were eating and Visione mentioned "alligator balls." When he explained that it was actually alligator sirloin rolled into spheres, relief set in - followed by fits of laughter.

For wild game, Visione recommends using an instant-read thermometer. Because it is leaner than beef, Visione looks up minimum safe temperatures on the USDA Web site. He follows those to avoid meat that tastes "like a catcher's mitt."

Visione usually serves game meat with creamy garlic or orange glaze sauces on the side.

Soup's on

It has different names - tortellini, capelleti or ravioli - and even spellings and pronunciations,depending on the region of Italy. Some ingredients even vary. But the basic idea is the same: meat-filled pasta served in a chicken broth.

Before every Christmas, relatives flock to the home of 92-year-old Lena Nordstrom (formerly Giarrante) in Peoria.

After dough is rolled, meat is inserted and each piece is folded. The most neatly folded ones are judged by one of Nordstrom's daughters - Geraldine Nordstrom, who does not participate in stuffing the pasta.

"My sister has a magnifying glass," said Geraldine's sister, Sharon Sprecker of Peoria. "When we make the raviolis, we choose our best and put them on a plate. Anonymously, she looks them over with a magnifying glass and picks the best one. We have a traveling trophy.

"I've come in second the last four years, and I think this is going to be my year. We've done it for years and I've never won."

Competition is serious among Lena Nordstrom's six children and their extended families.

"People try to bribe my sister," Sprecker said. "They might stick a $20 bill on the plate. We've just had a lot of fun with it over the years."

The pasta is dried, then frozen for about a week until Christmas. The soup is served as an appetizer.

"We have turkey and everything else, but everybody fights over those," Sprecker said.

At the Peoria home of Tim and Nancy Ryon, the soup is called capelleti.

Nancy's parents, the late Leno and Angelina Ricci, hail from northern Italy. Their recipe lives on each Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Irish side of the family also has come to crave the soup, which is served all day.

The Ryons, who have been married 27 years, have passed the recipe along to adult daughters Cecilia and Ann.

"It's the first thing ready," Tim Ryon said. "I have nephews who, when they were just little boys, the first thing they would do would be grab a bowl of capelletis. Now, as young men with children of their own, they're doing the same thing."

Hold the meat

Peoria resident Monica Ball and her children, 9-year-old son Kasey and daughter Kassidy, 6, lead a vegan lifestyle. Giving up all meat and dairy products was a big step for Ball, who comes from a Minnesota farm family.

After watching husband Kenny suffer with pancreatic cancer for 1 1/2 years before dying in 2003, Ball eventually decided to make the next step from being vegetarian.

"There is already so much suffering that we can't do anything about," Ball said. "Why add more to it?"

Although the family travels for Christmas and shares the table with meat-eating relatives, the Balls stay home for Thanksgiving: Tofurkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, crescent rolls, green bean casserole and pumpkin cheesecake. Ball said the children enjoy eating in the dining room, lighting candles and using the best china.

"Veganism makes it hard to be with other family members that don't feel the same," Ball said. "It's not really a happy event if there's a dead body on the table."

Don't ever change

Until her death in 2006, Kingston Mines resident Agnes Gohde served up two Thanksgiving treats her children have never forgotten: noodles and "money rolls."

Thanksgiving dinner now revolves among the central Illinois homes of her five children. One daughter, Becky Keen of Manito, explained the traditions.

"They're kind of thick, curly noodles," Keen said. "They're served as chicken and noodles and there's a thin broth, almost like a soup."

Youngsters look forward more to the other dish: standard dinner rolls baked around rolls of aluminum foil containing nickels, dimes and quarters. Kids can have as many as they want, but they're required to eat all the rolls they take.

Keen's sister, Penny Gohde, now makes the noodles, and her daughter, Mandy Anderson, is in charge of the rolls.

"My grandchildren look forward to the money rolls," Keen said. "They know they're going to be there on Thanksgiving."

How Swede it is

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas in Elmwood, Mary Stenwall serves potato sausage, along with standard holiday fare, for 20 to 30 relatives.

It originated with her husband, Warren, who was of Swedish descent. He died in 2003.

Stenwall's son-in-law and daughter, Vic and Christy Ewalt, now make the sausages - which involve grinding pork, beef, potatoes and onions together - a few days before each of those two holidays.

The ingredients, as well as the accompanying lingonberries, can be found at specialty food shops and butchers.

"It's something you have to acquire a taste for," Stenwall said. "They were going on and on about it, but the first time I tasted it, I wasn't too sure about it. The taste just sort of grows on you.

"My son (Mike) really got his grandmother upset. He asked for ketchup the first time he ate it. That didn't go over too well."

Ryan Ori can be reached at (309) 686-3264 or rori@pjstar.com.

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